Hybrid cloud storage biz Egnyte snags $16M from Google Ventures, KPCB, & Polaris

Enterprise cloud storage startup Egnyte has raised $16 million from Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Polaris Venture Partners in its third round of funding, the company announced Tuesday.

Egnyte helps businesses with various hybrid cloud storage solutions and competes with Box, Nirvanix, Zetta, and others. Through increased marketing efforts and a smart anti-Box campaign, the company has attracted more attention and now has 1 million users across 30,000 paying companies.

However, it still has work to do.

“Our biggest weakness is lack of awareness, so we’re going to use this funding for sales, marketing, etc.” Egnyte CEO Vineet Jain told VentureBeat “That said, I could have gone higher than $16 million. I’ve done this before, and I didn’t want to go too big.”

With Google’s recently launched Drive cloud storage product on the market, the addition of Google Ventures as an investor is significant. While Jain would not admit to it, it appears Google doesn’t trust that its Drive product alone can satisfy the enterprise, so it will put some chips down on Egnyte’s hybrid cloud solution as well. Google Ventures partner Karim Faris will join Egnyte’s board.

“What we have is very different from Drive,” Jain said. “Drive is more competing with services like Dropbox and iCloud.”

Including the new round of funding, Egnyte has raised a total of $32 million. Floodgate Fund and Steve Blank have also invested in the company.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Egnyte was founded in 2007 and plans to open its first international office in Europe before the fourth quarter of this year.

Photo illustration: Sean Ludwig/VentureBeat
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